Method for Monitoring Occupancy in a Work Area

1. A method comprising: at a sensor block, recording an image depicting the room; detecting a quantity of humans in the room based on the image; calculating a volume of the room based on the image; calculating a target rate of air exchange for the room based on the quantity of humans in the room and the volume of the room; calculating a permitted variance in a set temperature for the room based on the quantity of humans in the room and the volume of the room; and serving a command specifying the target rate of air exchange and the permitted variance for the room to a heating and ventilation control system for the room.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting the quantity of humans in the room based on the image comprises: extracting a set of features from the image; and detecting, based on the set of features, the quantity of humans in the room.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating the target rate of air exchange for the room based on the quantity of humans in the room and the volume of the room comprises calculating the target rate of air exchange for the room proportional to the quantity of humans in the room.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating the target rate of air exchange for the room based on the quantity of humans in the room and the volume of the room comprises: detecting an occupancy of the room based on the quantity of humans in the room; and in response to the occupancy of the room exceeding a threshold proportion of seats for the room, modifying the target rate of air exchange for the room.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating the target rate of air exchange for the room based on the quantity of humans in the room and the volume of the room comprises, in response to the quantity of humans in the room exceeding a threshold quantity of humans for the room, modifying the target rate of air exchange for the room.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating the volume of the room based on the image: detecting a perimeter of the conference room based on the image; extracting a non-dimensional length and a non-dimensional width of the room based on the perimeter; transforming the non-dimensional length and the non-dimensional width into a dimensioned length and dimensioned width; accessing a height of the sensor block in the room; and calculating the volume of the room based on the height of the sensor block in the room, the dimensioned length, and the dimensioned width.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein accessing the height of the sensor block in the room comprises accessing an output of a depth sensor of the sensor block.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein accessing the height of the sensor block comprises: accessing an output of a depth sensor of the sensor block; determining whether the sensor block is located above a desk based on the image; and in response to determining that the sensor block is located above the desk, calculating the height of the sensor block in the room by adding a standard table height to the output of the depth sensor.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising calculating a permitted variance corresponding to a target temperature for the room based on the quantity of humans in the room.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein calculating the permitted variance of the target temperature for the room comprises, in response to the quantity of humans exceeding the threshold quantity of humans, decreasing the permitted variance for the room.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, in response to the quantity of humans in the room exceeding an occupancy threshold for the room, dispatching support staff to the room.

12. A method comprising: at a sensor block, recording an image depicting the room; detecting an occupancy of the room based on the image; calculating a volume of the room based on the image; calculating a target rate of air exchange for the room based on the occupancy of the room and the volume of the room; calculating a permitted variance in a set temperature for the room based on the occupancy of the room and the volume of the room; and serving a command specifying the target rate of air exchange and the permitted variance for the room to a heating and ventilation control system for the room.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein detecting the occupancy of the room based on the image comprises: extracting a set of features from the image; detecting a set of objects in the first image based on the set of features, the set of objects comprising a quantity of humans; and calculating the occupancy of the room based on the quantity of humans.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein detecting the occupancy of the room based on the image comprises: extracting a set of features from the image; detecting a set of objects in the first image based on the set of features, the set of objects comprising a quantity of human effects; and calculating the occupancy of the room based on the quantity of human effects.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein detecting an occupancy of the room comprises: extracting a set of features from the image; detecting a set of objects in the first image based on the set of features; and designating the room as vacant based on an absence of humans and human effects from the set of objects.

16. A method comprising: at a sensor block, recording a baseline image depicting a room; calculating a volume of the room based on the baseline image; in a first scan cycle in a set of scan cycles: at the sensor block, recording a first image depicting the room; detecting a first occupancy of the room based on the first image; calculating a first target rate of air exchange for the room based on the first occupancy and the volume of the room; and serving a first command specifying the first target rate of air exchange for the room to a heating and ventilation control system for the room; and in a second scan cycle in the set of scan cycles: at the sensor block, recording a second image depicting the room; detecting a second occupancy of the room based on the second image; calculating a second target rate of air exchange for the room based on the second occupancy in the room and the volume of the room; and serving a second command specifying the second target rate of air exchange for the room to the heating and ventilation control system for the room.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising setting a frequency for the set of scan cycles based on the volume of the room.

18. The method of claim 16 , further comprising setting a frequency for the set of scan cycles subsequent to the first scan cycle based on the first occupancy of the room.

19. The method of claim 16 : wherein detecting the first occupancy of the room based on the first image comprises detecting the first occupancy of the room representing vacancy of the room; wherein calculating the first target rate of air exchange for the room based on the first occupancy and the volume of the room comprises calculating a lower rate of air exchange for the room as the first target rate of air exchange for the room; wherein detecting the second occupancy of the room based on the second image comprises detecting the second occupancy of the room representing partial occupancy of the room; and wherein calculating the second target rate of air exchange for the room based on second occupancy and the volume of the room comprises calculating a higher rate of air exchange for the room as the second target rate of air exchange for the room.

20. The method of claim 16 , further comprising: in the first scan cycle: calculating a first permitted variance in a set temperature for the room based on the first occupancy of the room and the volume of the room; and serving a third command specifying the first permitted variance in the set temperature for the room to the heating and ventilation control system for the room; and in the second scan cycle: calculating a second permitted variance in the set temperature for the room based on the second occupancy of the room and the volume of the room; and serving a fourth command specifying the second permitted variance in the set temperature for the room to the heating and ventilation control system for the room.